A 17-story, towering medical center on the East Side of Columbus? Sounds impressive. How can anyone oppose a new hospital, especially in the face of the sexy talking points: $1 billion expansion, 6,000 direct jobs, an additional 26,000 indirect jobs and a $10 million investment to “uplift the East Side community.”
OSU President E. Gordon Gee and Mayor Michael Coleman have done a great job pretending this was a decision carried out in coalition with the residents of Poindexter Village, posing themselves as friendly allies and calling this a “common purpose” using “collective resources.”
But this project is not the communal endeavor that OSU makes it out to be. Wednesday, residents from Poindexter, one of the communities who would lose their homes in OSU’s proposal, demonstrated outside the State of the City address at the Lincoln Theatre.
They carried a black coffin on their backs. Their purpose: to “mourn the death of affordable housing.” They demanded that Gee nix his plans to displace hundreds of residents.
Then there is this claim about collective resources. Judging by the press release, one might think Gee was feeling generous after football season in his munificent pledge. One question keeps coming to mind — so why doesn’t he give the money directly to the community?
The history goes back to the summer when Coleman was pushing for the .5 percent income tax increase (from 2 percent to 2.5 percent). Chances are Gee, along with the dozens of other citizens groups that spoke out against the tax hike, was opposed to the motion.
To appease his influential “partner,” Coleman promised a healthy $10 million rebate for OSU’s med center. The only stipulation being that the doctors and medical staff invest that money in property in the eyesore neighborhood that makes up the East Side — property that today belongs to lower income, dominantly black communities.
OSU cannot with a clear conscious continue to preach diversity and black appreciation, while its actions speak otherwise. It would be disingenuous for OSU not to engage an area-wide study and seek the input of residents to help shape future programs and investment — two steps that OSU has thus far shown no signs of taking.
